In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,366 a ball-retaining net is described comprising two spaced-apart meshworks, each of which is lined with horizontal strips of netting. To keep the meshworks apart they were ties to opposite sides of the net-supporting posts. It was believed that the meshwork assemblies should be separated to provide space for the balls to enter behind the strips and, indeed, this separated net performs very well. However, I have now discovered that the net also traps balls if the meshwork-strip assemblies are permitted to hang freely together, and believe that this results from the fact that after a ball passes through one of the meshworks it usually has enough momentum to push back the opposing strip assembly sufficiently to become entrapped.
The improved net has the advantage that it appears more like a standard, non-entrapping net and much more closely approximates a two-dimensional surface.